A week after losing the TNA World title, Mike Santana will appear on tonight’s TNA Impact to let fans know what’s on his mind.
Santana lost to Frankie Kazarian in under a minute after NXT wrestlers attacked Santana and injured his arm. Kazarian then cashed in a title opportunity to take the gold. He then was late to the venue for Friday’s Turning Point in his tag team match alongside Steve Maclin against Nic Nemeth and Kazarian.
A pair of four-way matches in the Knockouts division will help take things one step further to deciding a new top contender to TNA Knockouts Champion Kelani Jordan.
In one match, it will be Xia Brookside vs. Victoria Crawford vs. Killer Kelly vs. Jody Threat while the other will feature Dani Luna vs. Indi Hartwell vs. Rosemary vs. Myla Grace. The winners of those bouts will then square off in two weeks with the winner challenging Jordan at December’s Final Resolution.
After Matt Cardona appeared on last week’s WWE SmackDown, he will be back in action against Mance Warner.
A singles match between Myron Reed and John Skyler rounds out the broadcast.
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-The show began with an In Memorial graphic for George Tahinos, before airing a recap of last week where Frankie Kazarian cashed in his Call Your Shot trophy and won the TNA World Title, much to the disdain of most people who saw and heard about it. It also included footage from Turning Point where Mike Santana beat Kazarian in a tag team match.
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Mike Santana addresses the fans and NXT
-In the arena, we were joined by the former World Champion, Mike Santana. Santana sat in a chair in the ring and started by saying he loves the fans to death. He talked about how a month ago, he was on top of the world and celebrating with his baby girl, who saved his life. Then last Wednesday he celebrated 1,000 days sober. Then the very next day, everything was taken from him. When you think you’re at the top, life will humble you. Santana talked of being scared and how dark things got. Instead of coming to Turning Point last week, he went to a safe space-a meeting. In that meeting he realized the fans deserve for him to be here. The fans pay their hard earned money for him to give them an escape and an experience and Santana thanked them. Having the title for a little bit just makes him want it that much more, telling Frankie Kazarian to not get too comfortable because the TNA World Title is coming home to Papi. However, before he takes care of Kazarian, he told the cameraman to zoom in to tell the NXT boys that he is going to pick each and every one of them off one by one until there’s nothing left. He will make them regret ever setting foot in TNA. Santana closed by saying he gave them fair warning and to beware.
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-Santino Marella was on the phone with Ava when Frankie Kazarian walked in and said he had nothing to do with the attack last week. He wants a written apology, signed by Carlos Silva. Santino said he had a meeting with JDC. JDC walked in and told Kazarian how he should be dressed as champion. Kazarian questioned when was the last time anyone cared about JDC and brought up JDC’s wife. JDC got serious and asked for a title shot. Santino booked JDC vs Eric Young and if JDC wins then he gets a title shot. Kazarian said he hopes EY cripples him.
They never said if Young wins if he’d get a title shot.
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Dani Luna pinned Indi Hartwell in a 4-way match that included Myla Grace w/Harley Hudson and Rosemary
A strong 4-way and I thought it was crisper than several of the women’s matches I saw last night at the AEW Dynamite/Collision show.
The winner of this match will face the winner of another 4-way match later tonight in two weeks to determine the new top challenger for the TNA Knockouts Title. Tom Hannifan plugged the 3-way match this Tuesday at NXT Gold Rush where Kelani Jordan will defend the TNA Knockouts Title against Jordynne Grace and Lei Ying Lee.
Myla, Rosemary and Dani especially ran some really well put together spots to start the match. Indi cleared the ring and had the advantage on Myla as they went to commercial. I never watch on TNA+, so I am not sure if this is a regular thing, but when Hannifan pitched a commercial, we just stayed on the match. After a few minutes of Indi and Myla wrestling, Luna and Rosemary yanked those two out of the ring to get them back in the match. Rosemary threatened to spew the green mist on Luna, but Luna backed off and resumed her attack on Myla.
After Rosemary bit Indi, we were magically whisked away to a commercial, which featured Christian Cage vs Frankie Kazarian in a ladder match from Genesis 2007.
After the commercial, Myla did a Corkscrew Moonsault to the floor to Rosemary. My favorite Demon Assassin pulled a chain out from under the ring, but Myla posted her. Dani picked up the chain and KO’d Indi with it for the pin.
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-Eric Young told some masked guys to hand out flyers and that The Cleanse was coming. Gia Miller walked up for an interview. Young said that if he wins the main event, all he gets is a pat on the back. EY said after he beats JDC and shows the world the truth, that the Cleanse will come and there’s nothing any of us can do about it.
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-Santino was now with Arianna Grace to debate how the NXT people got in. In walked Steve Maclin and the Hardys, all of whom encouraged Santino to open the doors and let the NXT people in. Jeff Hardy offered the TNA Tag Team Titles as bait.
Is it too obvious to say that NXT’s Arianna Grace is opening the door for the NXT people to come in?
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Mance Warner w/Steph DeLander pinned Matt Cardona
Absolutely nothing wrong with this match.
This was set up during the Call Your Shot Gauntlet Match when DeLander kept trying to help Warner cheat but he still got eliminated by Cardona. During the entrance we saw Dolph Ziggler and Zack Ryder lose matches on Raw and SmackDown last week.
Cardona was setting up Radio Silence, but SDL grabbed his ankle, distracting him long enough that he got laid out with a powerbomb when he got loose from DeLander. Warner blocked an Unprettier and used the Move Formerly Known as The One-Percenter and a running knee lift. Warner teased using a chair, but the referee took it. Warned teased using SDL’s purse but got dropped with Radio Silence. However, SDL put Warner’s foot on the ropes. In the ensuing confusion, Warner hit Cardona with the purse and a Pay Window for the win.
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TNA Injury Report, presented by Bioflex
Mike Santana has a torn UCL, but is cleared
Elijah is still out with a torn triceps
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-The NXT Guys said they are doing the same thing TNA guys are doing, just better. Charlie Dempsey said he knows how to put on a real wrestling move. Robert Stone said he’s not behind this and did reference being in TNA before. Lexis King said all the king’s horses and all the king’s men can’t put TNA back together again.
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-Matt Cardona was mad backstage, saying he wasn’t ready tonight. He thought Mance was like his brother, but apparently not. This business only cares about who’s on top and challenges Mance to a Street Fight in El Paso. Hannifan clarifies it would be at Final Resolution if the match is accepted.
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John Skyler pinned Myron Reed
The rest of The Rascalz and Order 4 stayed backstage.
This looked like it could have been a style clash, but Reed is spectacularly smooth and Skyler is an underrated solid worker. During the match, we saw a picture-in-picture where Special Agent Zero and Tasha Steelz appear to have laid out the other Rascalz. The finish saw Jason Hotch come out and when Reed had Skyler roiled up, Hotch reached in, rolled them over and Reed won.
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-Up next, we had footage of Leon Slater pinning Rich Swann. After that we saw First Cla$$ outside and AJ was giving Swann grief about losing and even more grief for shaking Slater’s hand. Francis mentioned that he won at Turning Point, while Swann lost to a flippy little kid from England. Speaking of the flippy little kid from England, up walked Leon Slater. AJ said that in the 90s when kids showed no respect then you got it beat into them. They set up a match.
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The Search For Mr. Elegance
-The Personal Concierge hosted the search for Mr. Elegance before introducing us to the co-hosts, Ash, M and Heather By Elegance. The only rule is you can’t go behind the curtain. Ash immediately went after the first guy. Concierge told guy #2 that the only person who could wear a salmon suit was Mark Henry. Heather asked the third guy (Alejandro) about steroids, but he had no idea. Alejandro hit on all three of them, but they all called him a loser.
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Xia Brookside pinned Killer Kelly in a 4-way match that also included Victoria Crawford w/Tessa Blanchard and Jody Threat
This match wasn’t as good as the first 4-way, but it certainly wasn’t awful
Hannifan said Kelly hasn’t been in TNA “in a minute”, implying it’s been a while since she’s been here. She was just on the show in September.
Tessa Blanchard joined the announce desk, disgusted about how her and Victoria are treated, saying if she was medically cleared, they’d be the tag team champions. She threw down the headset and ran around the ring to lend immoral support to her partner. Threat and Kelly squared off, reminding fans of the battles a few years ago between Spitfire and MK Ultra over the belts. Brookside pinned Kelly in the ring out of nowhere.
So, in two weeks it will be Xia vs Dani Luna and the winner of that match will challenge Kelani Jordan for the Knockouts Title at Final Resolution.
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-A Jada Stone video aired, discussing growing up, how her brother gave her the nickname The Spark and how she trained with Al Snow, Doug Bashem, Fred Rossier and Kushida before pestering Tommy Dreamer to get a tryout. Her first tryout didn’t go well, but she has worked hard to get to this point where she has earned her spot.
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-Between a backstage segment with Santino Marella where he listed a bunch of matches as fast as possible “Santino Style” and an on-camera with Hannifan and Rehwaldt, the following matches were made official…
Final Resolution:
Mike Santana vs Charlie Dempsey
Hardyz vs Tyson Dupont & Tyriek Igwe
Steve Maclin vs Stacks
X-Division Champion Leon Slater vs AJ Francis
Matt Cardona vs Mance Warner in a Street Fight
Next week on Impact:
HTM vs Brooks Jensen
Mike Santana vs Robert Stone
Hardys, Cendric Alexander & Steve Maclin vs Lexis King, Stacks, Tyson Dupont & Tyriek Igwe
Santino called Tyriek “Shrek” and when he’s listing 10 things in 25 seconds and you’re trying to quickly type everything out, you are bound to miss something, especially when you have no idea at first who “Shrek” is, but I think I got everything.
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JDC pinned Eric Young
This was an alright match, but was a lot more entertaining when listening to the announcers.
Frankie Kazarian joined the announce desk for this match and it has been acknowledged that JDC will retire after Genesis.
After doing a tope out of the ring, JDC did the “d-dance” (to quote Rehwaldt) in front of Kazarian, who disgustedly reminded JDC that he’s married. It never really got explained why Young wouldn’t get a title shot if he won and Rehwaldt and Kazarian made fun of Hannifan. Hannifan said Kazarian may deserve to be World Champion, but he is the biggest scumbag and “p.o.s.” in the company. Rehwaldt agreed that Kazarian is a “p.o.s.”, but a “point of sale”, saying Kazarian sells tickets.
During this commercial break, we got Samoa Joe vs Frankie Kazarian from Destination X 2011. I wish they’d bring back Destination X.
Back from commercials, they went into the finish. JDC used his former partner’s finish, as he hit Tyler Breeze’s Beauty Shot (spinning heel kick) for a near fall. Young dropped a top rope elbow through JDC’s heart for another near fall and then JDC kicked out of a DVD. The finish saw JDC backdrop Young off the top rope and pin him with Down & Dirty aka the top rope legdrop.
Notably, Final Resolution is December 5, 2 days short of the 15-year anniversary of JDC’s national television debut, on season 4 of the original NXT.
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Overall thoughts: This was a good, solid show. There was nothing on it that will be talked about next month, but it was a fun way to spend two hours on a Thursday night.
